Navigating Overwhelm And Prioritizing Inner Peace – Exclusive Interview With Tania Murray

Tania Murray is a mindfulness teacher and the founder of Mindful Way of Life, a business dedicated to supporting individuals in integrating mindfulness principles and practices into everyday life to help them navigate overwhelm. She is the creator of Becoming Unstuck: Navigating a Path Through Overwhelm and the mentoring program Prioritising Peace: Mindfulness for Everyday Living. As an accredited mindfulness teacher, she integrates evidence-based practices like MBSR and MBCT with her training in yoga and transformation meditation to help individuals manage stress, tackle overwhelm, and cultivate inner peace. A passionate photographer, Tania captures fleeting moments with her camera as a way of exploring a more mindful way of life. Her teaching inspires others to prioritize peace and find balance in their daily lives.

Tania Murray, Mindfulness Teacher

Please tell us more about you.

I am a lover of nature and a seeker of calm. I enjoy art, photography, writing, and sharing mindfulness with anyone eager to learn. Immersing myself in different cultures brings about a sense of community that inspires me. I have traveled extensively, but there are still many places I’d love to visit. On a warm summer day, I love nothing more than sitting under a tree in my local park with a good book, as the sun pokes through the leaves, creating light patterns that dance across the pages while I read.

Life has always felt a bit stressful, and anxiety often lurks, looking for an opportunity to make itself known. Knowing this, I have participated in numerous well-being courses and spent many hours training to become a yoga and meditation teacher, as much for myself as for the many children and adults I have taught over the years. The youngest person I introduced to the basic concepts of mindfulness was three years old, and the oldest was in her nineties. Both of these moments highlight that learning to interact mindfully with the world around you is accessible to everyone, regardless of age.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

Finding calm amidst the hustle and bustle of city life can be a challenge, especially if you work in a busy environment and endure a daily commute. After teaching yoga and meditation for a few years, personal circumstances forced me back into an office role, and I found myself suffering from anxiety. Sleep became a challenge, leaving me unrested. I felt misunderstood, started losing confidence, and doubted my ability to perform my job even though I had previously held more senior roles.

The pivotal moment came when I experienced alarming chest pain and simultaneously realized that depressing thoughts had made themselves a permanent home in my mind. I felt completely overwhelmed. A visit to my GP revealed I was experiencing the negative effects of excessive stress. I had become so consumed with getting through each day that I started to ignore everything I had learned and taught others in previous years. Instead, I had been living in a miserable fog.

I realized I needed to reconnect with yoga and meditation practices to reduce my stress levels. After some soul-searching, it became clear that I missed teaching and the inspiring connections created with class attendees. A significant part of what made me happy was missing, so I decided to deepen my knowledge of mindfulness and return to teaching.

What is your next goal?

I believe in the healing power of mindful movement to enhance the mind-body connection, calm the nervous system, and promote self-regulation. This belief has inspired my current goal of becoming a Tai Chi Chih teacher. I plan to work towards accreditation in 2025. Through my teaching, I aim to raise awareness about the importance of slowing down, reflecting before reacting, and not letting life pass by while living on autopilot. I firmly believe we all need to listen to the whispers that guide us toward greater awareness of how we feel from moment to moment. Mindful movement and other mindfulness practices can help us achieve this.

Where is your happy place?

I am inspired by nature and appreciate the peace I experience when spending time outdoors, whether hiking in the mountains or walking alongside a river or the ocean. When we stop and pay attention, we notice that nature moves at its own pace, and there is no rushing. Nature teaches us resilience, patience, and the beauty of timing.

Do you have a motto or favorite quote?

I do not have a personal motto, but I love this quote by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana:

"Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom."

What motivated the creation of your short course, Becoming Unstuck: Navigating Your Path Through Overwhelm?

As human "beings," we are always striving to get somewhere and often miss the joy of the journey. More often than not, we become exhausted and start to feel stuck. This "stuckness" paralyzes us into inaction and clouds our ability to see through the "fog" of stress and anxiety.

I know what it feels like to be caught up in this "stuckness" and to lose my way in the "fog." It is not pleasant. I was motivated to create Becoming Unstuck: Navigating Your Path Through Overwhelm by my desire to share the mindful principles and practices that have helped me so much over the years. Building emotional and psychological resilience to clear the "brain fog" created by stress, anxiety, and overwhelm is empowering. I believe this information should be accessible to everyone, giving them the opportunity to help themselves.

How can working with a mindfulness teacher help?

Working with a mindfulness teacher is a powerful way to reconnect with yourself and experience profound personal transformation. Through personalized guidance and transformative mindfulness practices, you can cultivate a deeper connection to the present moment and rediscover your authentic self. I can help you reduce stress, regulate emotions, and increase self-awareness, allowing you to break free from limiting patterns and embrace a more intentional, fulfilling life.

How do you support your clients' mindfulness journey?

As a mindfulness teacher, I like to keep things simple and accessible. I understand that people are busy, and adding another "learning experience" to their lives might feel overwhelming. With this in mind, I teach an online introduction to the basics of practical mindfulness called Becoming Unstuck: Navigating Your Path Through Overwhelm. This is a great starting point. If individuals wish to deepen their knowledge of mindfulness principles and practices, they can do so with me through my one-to-one mentoring program called Prioritising Peace: Mindfulness for Everyday Living.

Where can we find you, and how do we keep in touch?

My website, Facebook page, Instagram account, and LinkedIn profile will keep you up to date with all things mindfulness, including any workshops and courses I run, as well as my mentoring program. Starting in early 2025, I will also be writing articles for Brainz Magazine, and I invite you to stay connected with me through any of these platforms.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

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